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Buy a Copy of Salvador Dalí’s Erotic Cookbook
Elizabeth Berman
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A signed copy of Salvador Dalí’s legendary cookbook Les Diners de Gala is up for grabs on Ebay for a hefty $2,000. The seller’s description specifies that the book is signed “in purple marker on the blank side of the first free endpaper.”
The twentieth century Surrealist master published the absurdist cookbook in 1973, indulging his purported childhood dream of becoming a chef. It contains a trove of his gustatory and often erotic illustrations, including 12 unique lithographs and 136 illustrated recipes. Divided into twelve chapters—the tenth of which is dedicated to aphrodisiacs—the cookbook features whimsical recipes with names like “Thousand Year Old Eggs,” “Crayfish Consommé,” and “Casanova Cocktail.”
Dalí peppers Les Diners de Gala with charming editorial interjections. He decries the “detestable, degrading vegetable called spinach” for its shapeless form and presents gastronomical, philosophic musings. The book’s preface warns: “If you are a disciple of one of those calorie-counters who turn the joys of eating into a form of punishment, close this book at once.”
Those craving to explore other art-and-food hybrids can look to the 1932 Futurist Cookbook, which includes an anti-pasta manifesto, or Wild Raspberries, the result of a joint effort between the young Andy Warhol and his mother.
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